Rafael Curruchiche, dismissed this May 20 as head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (Feci)arrived at the Public Ministry more than a decade ago and since August 2021 he was at the head of that prosecutor’s office, a unit created to investigate criminal structures and high-impact corruption in Guatemala.
In recent days, the new attorney general Gabriel Garcia Luna announced the liquidation of the unit, arguing loss of credibility of that prosecutor’s office. The dismissal of someone who was part of Consuelo Porras Argueta’s close circle followed.
Curruchiche was appointed head of the Feci on August 3, 2021 by the then attorney general Consuelo Porras, after the dismissal of Juan Francisco Sandoval.
His appointment at Feci occurred just 11 days after Sandoval’s dismissal, a decision that generated strong national and international criticism. Various media and organizations indicated that under his direction, the prosecutor’s office changed the focus of anti-corruption investigations towards cases questioned due to alleged political persecution.
Before assuming the leadership of the Feci, Curruchiche served as head of the Prosecutor’s Office against Electoral Crimes. There was He arrived at that unit in 2016 and was appointed chief in 2019after replacing Oscar Schaad.
According to public records, Curruchiche began his career within the Public Ministry in municipal prosecutors’ offices in Malacatán, San Marcos, and Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, before being transferred to specialized prosecutors’ offices.
Cases under the management of Curruchiche
Among the most impactful cases directed by Curruchiche at the head of the Feci is the so-called “Seed Corruption”, related to alleged irregularities in the formation of the Semilla Movement party.
The prosecution’s actions included raids on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and judicial requests that sought to suspend the legal personality of the political group in the middle of the 2023 electoral process.
The FECI also led investigations against judges and staff of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for alleged anomalies in minutes, computer systems and party affiliations.
Since Curruchiche assumed the leadership of the Feci in 2021, the prosecutor’s office was in charge of several cases with high political, judicial and media impact. These are some of the most relevant:
- “Seed Corruption” Case: probably the most high-profile file of Curruchiche’s management. The Feci investigated alleged irregularities in the formation of the Semilla Movement party, including false signatures and unreported financing. In July 2023, the prosecutor’s office requested the suspension of the party’s legal personality during the electoral process.
- Investigations against magistrates and TSE personnel: derived from the Semilla case, the Feci carried out raids in the Supreme Electoral Court and presented indications about the electoral computer system and possible anomalies in minutes and affiliations.
- Requests for withdrawal of immunity against Bernardo Arévalo: already during the Arévalo government, the Feci promoted actions to withdraw presidential immunity for alleged abuses of authority related to administrative decisions.
- Case against Jose Rubén Zamora: the Feci led the investigation and accusation against the founder of elPeriódico for money laundering. Zamora was captured in July 2022 and sentenced in 2023, although the case was widely questioned by international organizations and press freedom entities.
- Prosecutions against lawyers and former anti-corruption prosecutors: During Curruchiche’s administration, the Feci promoted cases against former members of the CICIG and former anti-corruption prosecutors, several of whom went into exile. Among them were investigations linked to the Odebrecht case.
- Odebrecht case reactivated against former Cicig and MP officials: The FECI promoted arrest warrants and accusations against former investigators of the collaboration agreement with Odebrecht, including requests against former commissioner Iván Velásquez and Colombian prosecutor Luz Adriana Camargo.
From anti-corruption prosecutor’s office to political persecution
The Feci evolved from a fiscal unit created in 2008 as part of the agreement between the Government of Guatemala and the United Nations Organization for the installation of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), whose mandate was to investigate criminal structures and high-impact corruption networks infiltrated in the State.
During the joint work between CICIG and the MP, around 120 emblematic cases were investigated, among them La Línea casewhich led to the conviction of the former president Otto Perez Molina and the former vice president Roxana Baldetti.
After the departure of the international commission in 2019, Feci continued to operate solely under the structure of the MP. However, with The arrival of Curruchiche to the head of the prosecutor’s office began national and international questions due to the direction of several investigations and the processes brought against former prosecutors, judges, journalists and justice operators linked to anti-corruption cases.
Some of the files investigated during the CICIG stage did not continue or ended with dismissals and closures of cases. In several of these processes, The judicial resolutions were not appealed by the prosecution, which allowed those involved will regain their freedom or will be separated of the accusations without further follow-up.
At the same time, the MP promoted investigations against former members of the Feci and former members of the Cicig, including the former head of that prosecutor’s office, Juan Francisco Sandoval, as well as prosecutors and justice operators who later went into exile denouncing political persecution.